Amid the military conflict in Ukraine, the choice of a new French ambassador to Russia has been an especially delicate matter for Paris. According to information Le Monde has acquired, 61-year-old Nicolas de Rivière, currently serving as France's representative to the United Nations in New York, was quietly appointed to the position in Moscow, during a November 6 cabinet meeting. Per diplomatic custom, his official appointment remains subject to the approval of Russian authorities, at a time when relations between Paris and Moscow have been frosty − although not broken off − almost 1,000 days after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched.
The Moscow-based position has been vacant since the summer, following Pierre Lévy's departure, just after his 69th birthday, after he had served more than four years as the head of the embassy. Appointed in January 2020, he was soon caught up in handling the Covid-19 crisis and, in February 2022, the "special military operation" the Kremlin had launched in Ukraine. Since the start of the conflict, Russia has been under Western sanctions, and contact between Russian officials and their European and American counterparts has been reduced to a bare minimum.
Fearing complications, French authorities had extended Lévy's term in the Russian capital for as long as possible, precisely to not have to seek Moscow's approval. In May 2022, Lévy was promoted by President Emmanuel Macron to the rank of Ambassador of France, an exceptional reward for his services to the nation. In theory, he should have then left Moscow that year. However, the Foreign Affairs Ministry kept him in the position for a further two years, the maximum duration which could not be further extended.
Since this summer, the de facto head of the embassy has been Zacharie Gross, who arrived in Moscow, in August, as a minister-counselor and, in the absence of an ambassador, has served as a chargé d'affaires (acting ambassador). Beyond Ukraine, there has been no shortage of hot-button topics during his tenure. On August 24, Pavel Durov, the Russian founder and CEO of the messaging platform Telegram, was arrested at the northern Paris suburban airport of Le Bourget, a month and a half after a legal investigation into 12 charges, mostly involving organized crime, was opened against him. He received a conditional release, which included a ban from leaving French territory.
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